Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Denver Post
Gov. John Hickenlooper has let his fellow
Democrats know he has issues with a bill that allows lawmakers to
repeal Colorado's death penalty, mentioning a "veto" as the sponsors say
they have the votes to get it passed.
Hickenlooper on Tuesday
spoke with House Democrats at their regular caucus luncheon in a
building across the street from the Capitol, one hour before a
committee was scheduled to hear the death-penalty bill.
Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, said it was the first time he has heard the governor use the term "veto."
"He
did not say, 'I will definitely, undoubtedly with no question veto
this,' " Pabon said. "But he did say that is something he is bouncing
around. He used the 'v' word."
Another Democrat,
who
asked not to be identified, said Hickenlooper told the caucus, "There
are some things we're going to have to disagree on ... and those things
we disagree on I'll have to veto." Rep. Lois Court of Denver,
the House Democratic caucus chairwoman, said she was busy with the
luncheon and missed some but not all of the governor's points.
"He
kind of said he thinks we need more public conversation," she said. "He
wants to have more opportunities to ask the public for their input."
The House Judiciary Committee heard the death penalty bill one hour after the luncheon on Tuesday, but took no official action.
Some lawmakers said Hickenlooper's concerns could doom the measure.
"It's
no secret the governor has conflicting feelings about the death
penalty," Hickenlooper's spokesman, Eric Brown, said via e-mail
Wednesday. "Those feelings are still unresolved."
When
Hickenlooper ran for office in 2010, he answered a Denver Post question
about whether the death penalty should be repealed by saying, "No, but
it should be restricted."
Late last year,

though, Hickenlooper was less decisive about the death penalty."I
wrestle with this, right now, on a pretty much daily basis because we
are in a position where we have a couple of death-row inmates that are
going to come up, and I haven't come to a conclusion," he told The
Associated Press.
House Bill 1264 was laid over Tuesday night after nine hours of impassioned testimony by proponents and opponents. The measure would repeal capital punishment in Colorado for offenses committed after July 1.
A date for when a final committee vote will occur on the measure has not been set.
Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, the bill's co-sponsor, said she's eager to move forward.
"I
have the votes in the House to pass the bill and it's not just
partisan, it's bipartisan," Levy said Wednesday. The measure is also
co-sponsored by Republican Rep. Kevin Priola of Henderson.
On
Wednesday, another committee heard a separate death penalty measure by
Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora. Her bill would have voters decide in
2014 whether to repeal the death penalty. It was laid over after a brief
committee hearing.
Fields opposes Levy's bill. Two of the three
men currently on Colorado's death row — Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray
— were convicted of killing Fields' son in 2005.
Neither Fields
nor Levy's measures would impact those already on death row, or someone
charged with a crime before their proposals became law.
The last person the state of Colorado put to death was Gary Davis in 1997.